Wear face masks at home, DOH official says

AN OFFICIAL of the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, March 15, 2021, again urged the public to wear face masks even at home to prevent transmission of the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) among family members.

Dr. Alethea de Guzman, DOH Epidemiology Bureau director, said the face masks provide the elderly and persons with comorbidities another layer of protection against Sars-CoV-2.

“It is very important that we wear face masks especially if we live with elderly people and those with comorbidities such as hypertension and diabetes,” she said in a television interview.

“Those of us who go out might bring the virus home and infect them,” she added.

The DOH earlier noted a clustering of Covid-19 cases in households.

Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega said the family clustering was brought about by the more transmissible variants of Sars-CoV-2.

Dr. Jose Rene de Grano, Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines president, said they were seeing more children being infected with the virus even though some of them have been staying at home.

Dr. Beverly Ho, director of DOH Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control bureaus, said beds designated for Covid-19 patients in intensive care units (ICU) in the National Capital Region were around 65 percent occupied, considered at moderate risk.

“We cannot just be complacent about the numbers now because the ICU beds are slowly being filled up,” she said in a virtual press briefing.

“So habang lumalaki ‘yung total number of cases natin, inevitably, malaki ‘yung number ng mapupunta po sa ICU,” she added.

As of March 14, 494 out of the 765 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients in the NCR were in use.

Less than 60 percent, or 2,364, of the 4,033 isolation beds in the NCR and around 38 percent, or 1,137, of the 2,977 ward beds were occupied.

Out of the 812 mechanical ventilators in the NCR, 307 or nearly 38 percent were in use, according to the DOH Covid-19 tracker.

The DOH reported 5,404 new cases on March 15, the fourth daily tally since the pandemic began in the Philippines. There were 626,893 cases in the country as of March 15, including 53,479 active cases, 12,837 deaths and 560,577 recoveries. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)